The 2007 film, which is both a prequel and remake of John Carpenter’s 1978 film of the same name, highlights the early years of fictional serial killer Michael Myers.

Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween highlights the early years of fictional killer Michael Myers

In the film, a 10-year-old Myers murders several people, including his older sister, his sister’s boyfriend and his mother’s boyfriend.

“After I watched the movie (a total of three times in one week) I put it back in the case and threw it in the trashcan so that people wouldn’t think that it influenced me in any way,” Jake Evans wrote, according to police.

'Halloween'

The confession says the teenager spent the earlier part of 3 October, 2012 watching the film, playing golf, and contemplating the murder of his mother, grandparents and three sisters.

"My plan was to kill my sister and my mom at my house and then go over to my grandparents and kill my oldest sister, Emily, and my two grandparents. Then I was going to wait until morning and kill my other sister, Audrey, because she was visiting from college," he wrote.

A judge has released a written confession from Jake Evans in which he claims the film influenced the slaying of his mother and sister

No new date has yet been given for Evans's trial

Convicted D.C. sniper Lee Boyd Malvo reportedly tried to use the film The Matrix as part of an insanity defence when he stood trial for the Washington Sniper killings.

Malvo is serving a life sentence in a prison in Virginia. His accomplice John Allen Mohammad was executed by lethal injection in 2009.

'The Matrix'

The pair were linked to 27 shootings across the country in 2002, including 10 fatal attacks in the Washington area.

Malvo is reported to have told detectives and the social worker to watch the film to understand his motives.

Some of Malvo’s drawings were introduced as evidence during the trial, including one which shows central character Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) and makes references to the film’s slogans of freeing one’s mind.

"The outside force has arrived, free yourself of the Matrix 'control,'" Malvo wrote on one drawing that depicted him handcuffed with the word Bondage on his chest. "Free first your mind. Trust me!! The body will follow."

The 1999 film has been used as an explanation for other violent acts too.

In May 2000 a Swiss exchange student dismembered his landlady because she was emitting “evil vibes” and he was afraid of being “sucked into the Matrix”. The case did not go to trial after the judge accepted an insanity plea.

Malvo is serving a life sentence

And in 2002 a 36-year-old bartender shot her landlady three times. She told a court: “They commit a lot of crimes in The Matrix”. Her insanity plea was also accepted.

Andrew Conley is serving a life sentence without parole for strangling his 10-year-old brother in 2009, just weeks after claiming he wanted to be like the fictional television serial killer Dexter.

A lawyer for the Columbine victims and their families attempted to sue the production company behind the film, along with the companies responsible for The Basketball Diaries and video games Doom and Mortal Kombat, ABC News reports.

“In April of 1998, at the end of their junior year, Harris and Klebold received their copies of the Columbine High School 1998 yearbook. A full year before their rampage Klebold made four entries in Harris's yearbook. One such entry referred to 'the holy April morning of NBK (Natural Born Killers).' Another entry says in part 'killing enemies, blowing up stuff, killing cops!! My wrath for January's incident will be godlike. Not to mention our revenge in the commons.' The January incident Klebold referred to is believed to be his arrest for breaking into a vehicle on Jan. 30, 1998. The Columbine cafeteria is also called the commons."

There were allegations the Oliver Stone film Natural Born Killers inspired Columbine killer Dylan Klebold

The case, which claimed the companies had encouraged shooter Klebold to kill, was dismissed in 2001.